In the News: It's Armstrong's Final Chapter, and Cycling's Muddled Epilogue



J

Jason Spaceman

Guest
From the article:
-------------------------------------------------------
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: July 22, 2005

Lance Armstrong is all but certain to win the Tour de France for the
seventh consecutive time when the race reaches Paris on Sunday, a
crowning achievement in the race that he has vowed will be his last.

But in the cycling world, fans and competitors are already looking
ahead to a world without Armstrong. And almost uniformly, people in
and around the sport doubt that another cyclist with Armstrong's
combination of athletic talent and a compelling personal story will
emerge in their lifetimes, if ever.

American cyclists who have risen in Armstrong's wake are anticipating
the sport without him. Among them are Levi Leipheimer and Floyd
Landis, former teammates of Armstrong's who have tried to escape his
shadow by moving to other teams and who are likely to finish in the
top 10 of this year's race.

But others who have invested in and reaped the benefits of Armstrong's
success are less certain of what the Tour de France and cycling will
be like without him. For cable television stations, sponsoring
companies, cycling enthusiasts and the consumers of products from
bicycles to energy bars, a world without Armstrong could be much
different indeed.

"I'm prepared for a big drop-off in viewers," said Gavin Harvey, the
president of OLN, the cable television station owned by Comcast that
has televised the Tour de France since 2001. "Obviously we are working
against that, and for the last two Tours, we have absolutely been
preparing for that day. But Lance is not just an epic athlete. He is
an epic human story, and a lot of people have been brought into our
audience by that."
------------------------------------------------------------------

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J. Spaceman
 
Err, Jason, these guys are getting paid to fill in empty space with
words and that's what they're doing.

Will OLN see a drop off in viewers? Without a doubt, but not nearly as
many as they might fear. There are a lot of other Americans in the
peloton now and with Zabriskie, Creed and Danielson there is a lot of
hope for the future.

Don't worry, be happy.
 
On 22-Jul-2005, smacked up and reeling, "Tom Kunich" <[email protected]>
blindly formulated
the following incoherence:

> Will OLN see a drop off in viewers? Without a doubt, but not nearly as
> many as they might fear.

For my money the TdF will be much more interesting without Lance, and I
would expect anyone interested in cycling will be on the edge of thier seat
waiting to see who/what emerges. OLN should have begun a regular daily
promotion with five minute segments "Next Year in the TdF".

Are there really a lot of people who watch just because Lance is an
American? I find that hard to imagine...I mean, if you're not a cycling
fan, how can you find the coverage interesting? And if you are a cycling
fan, isnt it drama and excitement that you want...not just to cheer for the
local boy?

steve
--
"Local firemen improvised."
Benny Hill
 
On 22-Jul-2005, smacked up and reeling, [email protected] blindly formulated
the following incoherence:

> >Are there really a lot of people who watch just because Lance is an
> >American? I find that hard to imagine...I mean, if you're not a cycling
> >fan, how can you find the coverage interesting?
>
> How many gymnastics fans are there ?
> And yet for 2 weeks every four years it gets killer ratings.

True enough, but that's not a difficult sport to understand/appreciate.

And, personally, Id like to have one or two of those girls on my balance
beam.

:^)

steve
--
"Local firemen improvised."
Benny Hill
 
On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 14:27:16 GMT, "steve" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Are there really a lot of people who watch just because Lance is an
>American? I find that hard to imagine...I mean, if you're not a cycling
>fan, how can you find the coverage interesting?

How many gymnastics fans are there ?
And yet for 2 weeks every four years it gets killer ratings.
 
Tom Kunich wrote:
> Err, Jason, these guys are getting paid to fill in empty space with
> words and that's what they're doing.
>
> Will OLN see a drop off in viewers? Without a doubt, but not nearly as
> many as they might fear. There are a lot of other Americans in the
> peloton now and with Zabriskie, Creed and Danielson there is a lot of
> hope for the future.
>
> Don't worry, be happy.

I'm encouraged that they said they've been working for two or three
years on doing something about the predicted droppoff in viewers. This
explains all the fluff from Gum and Trautwig. They're working towards
drawing in the Lance-spectacle-newbie crowd to keep them interested in
future tours, which is good...it implies OLN is interested in
continuing covering it.
 
gym.gravity wrote:

> I'm encouraged that they said they've been working for two or three
> years on doing something about the predicted droppoff in viewers. This
> explains all the fluff from Gum and Trautwig. They're working towards
> drawing in the Lance-spectacle-newbie crowd to keep them interested in
> future tours, which is good...it implies OLN is interested in
> continuing covering it

OLN has cut their cycling coverage in the last couple of years in order
to focus their effort squarely on the Lance story. They used to
broadcast daily coverage of the Giro and Vuelta, despite the fact that
Lance never participated in those events. Last year, the Vuelta was
inexplicably dropped from the schedule right after the Tour. This year,
the Giro only received token weekend coverage. Now that Lance is going
away, OLN better rethink how they are going to keep their cycling
viewership, but it won't be by reducing the number of important races
covered.
Paying Al Trautwig and Kirsten Gum for whatever they contribute to the
broadcasts is a waste of money, and does not improve the programs in
any way. Even for viewers who are not savvy in the fine points of the
sport, dumbing down the coverage does not engender interest. OLN shoud
just stick with the solid commentary by Liggett, Sherwen, and Roll, and
cut the travelogs, goofing around, and the rest of the losers from the
broadcasts.
 
[email protected] wrote:

> OLN has cut their cycling coverage in the last couple of years in order
> to focus their effort squarely on the Lance story. They used to
> broadcast daily coverage of the Giro and Vuelta, despite the fact that
> Lance never participated in those events. Last year, the Vuelta was
> inexplicably dropped from the schedule right after the Tour. This year,
> the Giro only received token weekend coverage. Now that Lance is going
> away, OLN better rethink how they are going to keep their cycling
> viewership, but it won't be by reducing the number of important races
> covered.
> Paying Al Trautwig and Kirsten Gum for whatever they contribute to the
> broadcasts is a waste of money, and does not improve the programs in
> any way. Even for viewers who are not savvy in the fine points of the
> sport, dumbing down the coverage does not engender interest. OLN shoud
> just stick with the solid commentary by Liggett, Sherwen, and Roll, and
> cut the travelogs, goofing around, and the rest of the losers from the
> broadcasts.

Dude, you're not part of the target audience. OLN is doing it's best
to package cycling in a NASCAR fashion. You will watch the Tour any
way you can get it, others won't.
 
steve wrote:
> I mean, if you're not a cycling
> fan, how can you find the coverage interesting? And if you are a cycling
> fan, isnt it drama and excitement that you want...not just to cheer for the
> local boy?

Lance is *famous* (on TV and hyped a lot), he's American, and he kicks
all those "foreigners" butts *every* year. That is why non-fans watch
the Tour... sometimes. Maybe they just stop at OLN while they are
channel surfing, because they know about Lance.

Americans don't seem to like international sports. All the ones that
are popular are leagues made up of US/Canadian teams. Americans
generally like to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist.
Just because we have a few American riders doing well in the Tour, that
doesn't mean your average sports fan will be interested. Back when
Lemond was making his comeback, road cycling became more popular,
too... but after that no one cared anymore.

When Lance is gone, it will be back to the real fans only (which are
few, unfortunately)... and I hope OLN doesn't decide to drop Tour
coverage all together.
 
On 22 Jul 2005 12:37:27 -0700, "Ron Ruff" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>steve wrote:
>> I mean, if you're not a cycling
>> fan, how can you find the coverage interesting? And if you are a cycling
>> fan, isnt it drama and excitement that you want...not just to cheer for the
>> local boy?
>
>Lance is *famous* (on TV and hyped a lot), he's American, and he kicks
>all those "foreigners" butts *every* year. That is why non-fans watch
>the Tour... sometimes. Maybe they just stop at OLN while they are
>channel surfing, because they know about Lance.
>
>Americans don't seem to like international sports. All the ones that
>are popular are leagues made up of US/Canadian teams. Americans
>generally like to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist.
>Just because we have a few American riders doing well in the Tour, that
>doesn't mean your average sports fan will be interested. Back when
>Lemond was making his comeback, road cycling became more popular,
>too... but after that no one cared anymore.
>
>When Lance is gone, it will be back to the real fans only (which are
>few, unfortunately)... and I hope OLN doesn't decide to drop Tour
>coverage all together.


They'll keep it. But they'll reduce the Tour to a few 2 hour
episodes(like NBC does now) and keep the Giro and Vuelta as 2 hour
specials. All shown at 3am right after OutdoorProduct Showcase and
before Consumer Product Showcase.

Maybe we should write to Fox Sports Net. They will show Darts, Poker,
Table Tennis and Aussie Rules FB so why not cycling.

D
 
On 22-Jul-2005, smacked up and reeling, "Ron Ruff" <[email protected]>
blindly formulated
the following incoherence:

> Americans don't seem to like international sports. All the ones that
> are popular are leagues made up of US/Canadian teams. Americans
> generally like to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist.

Somewhat true, but...

Last I heard (and it's been a while) there were over 30,000 USCF licensed
road racers in the US. A good start. Add to that a lot of people who ride
recreationally and understand/appreciate racing. How many could that be?
Another 30,000? Id say way more. Probably at least half a million.

OK, compare that to the number of people who might want to watch just about
any of the other sports OLN shows...fishing, hunting, rodeo, running of the
bulls, whatever. How many people do you know who want to watch fishing?

So maybe OLN could/should target and cater to the more narrow audience with
lower programming cost. Smaller staff (get rid of trouthead anyway), buy
the european feed (personally I like seeing stats in french..it's kinda
cool), and show the live coverage once in prime time instead of 4 times a
day. Get cycling related advertisers to pay well for access to that narrow
audience. Advertisers like a focused demographic.

OK, so I dont run OLN. But if I did...

steve
--
"Local firemen improvised."
Benny Hill
 
steve wrote:

> On 22-Jul-2005, smacked up and reeling, "Ron Ruff" <[email protected]>
> blindly formulated
> the following incoherence:
>
>
>>Americans don't seem to like international sports. All the ones that
>>are popular are leagues made up of US/Canadian teams. Americans
>>generally like to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist.
>
>
> Somewhat true, but...
>
> Last I heard (and it's been a while) there were over 30,000 USCF licensed
> road racers in the US. A good start. Add to that a lot of people who ride
> recreationally and understand/appreciate racing. How many could that be?
> Another 30,000? Id say way more. Probably at least half a million.
>
> OK, compare that to the number of people who might want to watch just about
> any of the other sports OLN shows...fishing, hunting, rodeo, running of the
> bulls, whatever. How many people do you know who want to watch fishing?

Probably way more than either of us would like to believe.

-Mark
 
"gym.gravity" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Dude, you're not part of the target audience. OLN is doing it's best
> to package cycling in a NASCAR fashion. You will watch the Tour any
> way you can get it, others won't.

And let's try to remember that the TARGET audience pays the bills and not we
relatively few enthusiasts.
 
Tom Kunich a écrit :
>
> And let's try to remember that the TARGET audience pays the bills and notwe

That's why I prefer to shop at K-Mart.

-ilan
 
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